Godfried van Voorst tot Voorst

Godfried van Voorst tot Voorst (29 December 1880-11 November 1963) was a General of the Royal Netherlands Army during World War II.

Biography
Godfried van Voorst tot Voorst was born in Kampen, Netherlands on 29 December 1880, the son of President of the Senate Jan Joseph Godfried van Voorst tot Voorst. He graduated first in his class from the Royal Military Academy at Breda in 1901, and he became a personal adjutant to Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands in 1907. Van Voorst tot Voorst rose in the ranks of the Royal Netherlands Army during the Interwar period, studying the Schlieffen Plan; he also wrote a book on German rearmament, and he opposed the pacifist movement in the country. Van Voorst tot Voorst's plans to hold back a potential German invasion of Limburg were debated by those who believed that war with Nazi Germany would be preceded by long diplomatic tensions, resulting in the Royal Army being unprepared when the Wehrmacht invaded. After the bombing of Rotterdam, Van Voorst tot Voorst advised Henri Winkelman to surrender, and he spent 5 years in a German prisoner-of-war camp rather than pledge allegiance to Nazism. He was promoted to General in 1960, and he died in 1963 at the age of 83.